Sectional furnace.



C. PHELPS.

SECTIONAL FURNACE.

APFL iCATION HLED DEC. 27, I912. 7 1,278,379., PatentedSept. 10,1918.

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IC. PHELPS. SECTION AL FURNACE. APPLICATIYONYHLED DEC. 27,1912.

Patented Sept. 10, 1918'.

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c. PHELPS. SECTIONAL FURNACE.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 27,1912.

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Patented Sept.

- INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS W] T NESSES:

CHARLES PHELPS, OF OSKALOOSA, IOWA.

SECTION AL FURNACE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 10, 1918.

Application filed December 27, 1912. Serial No. 738,834.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, C ARLES PHELPS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Oskaloosa, in the county of Mahaska, and State of Iowa, haveinvented a certain new and useful Sectional Furnace, of which thefollowing is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a furnace of the class known assectional furnaces and in which each of the sections is divided into twohalfsections, each half section being complete in itself and said halfsections being interchangeable for either side of the furnace so thatwhen it becomes necessary to repair or replace a broken or defectivepart the operator need only remove the halfscction' and replace it witha new half section device effecting a great economy in the time, laborand eX- pense of making repairs.

More specifically it is myobject in this connection to provide animproved form of section especially designed for the front and the rearof a furnace and so constructed and arranged that a half section mayreadily and easily be substituted for any one of the four half sectionsof a furnace front or a furnace rear.

Another object is to provide furnace half sections. of this kind inwhich thereis, a complete and independent circulation of water througheach half section.

Another object is to provide furnace sections of this class by the useof which a complete furnace may be made including not only the boilerportion but the fire grate supporting portion and theash pit portion sothat when a furnace is changed inv size by the addition or removal ofsections, no other work such for instance as the laying of foundationsor of brick walls for the ash pit need be constructed.

A further object is to provide a device to be used in the nature of anattachment for sectional furnaces of this class, whereby an ordinary hotwater furnace may be changed into a steam furnace and which attachmentmay be readily and easily removed or replaced.

My invention consists, in certain details,

in'the construction, arrangement and-combination of the various parts ofthe device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained, ashereinafter more fully 'set forth, pointed out in my claim andillustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows a rear end elevation of a sectional boiler furnaceembodying my invention and having the steam generating chamber appliedthereto, a part thereof being broken away to show the interior.

Fig; 2 shows a top or Ian view of same.

. Fig. 3 shows a sectiona perspective view illustrating one of the rearfurnace members and also part of an adjacent intermediate furnacemember.

Fig. 4: shows a detail, horizontal, sectional view of same taken on aline through the water circulating openings thereof near the top.

Fig. 5 shows a perspective view of one of the-rear furnace memberscomplete.

Fig. 6 shows a perspective view of one of the members of theintermediate furnace section embodying my invention.

Fig. 7 shows a front elevation of two furnace half sections providedwith the necesiary attachments for forming a furnace ront.

F ig. 8 shows a rear elevation of two, furnace half sections arrangedtogether for forming a rear furnace section, the attachments' necessarytherefor being omitted, which attachments however are illustrated inFig. 1.

Fig. 9 shows an enlarged, detail,.sectional view illustrating the upperportion of one of the furnace half, sections to show the circulatingopenings, and 3 Fig. 10 shows an enlarged, detail, sectional Viewillustrating a hand hole cover for the circulating openings in the frontsections.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, I shall first describe the frontand rear furnace half sections. Each of these, as will be seen byreference'to Figs. 3 and 5, comprisesa hollow rectangular body portion10 aving on its'inner edge a rectangular recess 11 near its top providedwith perforated lugs 12 at its corners. These lugs are preferably spacedabout midway between the sides of said body portion. Below therectangular recess 11 another similar recess 12 having thereonperforated lugs 12*, similar to the lugs 12 and at the lower innercorner of the body portion 10 is an'angular recess 12 having perforatedlugs 12 at the corners thereof.

The inner edge of the body portion 10 is provided with a verticallyarranged rib 13, the ribs of two adjacent half sections being designedto fit together in the manner illustrated in Fig. 2.

Near the upper outer corner of each of the body portions 10 on bothsides are the circulating openings 14.

In order to couple one of these half sections to an adjacent halfsection, I provide the perforated lug 15 at the top above the adjacentcirculating opening 14 and near the bottom isa perforated lug 16, whichlugs may be connected together by means of bolts 17 arranged in themanner shown in Fig. 2. Below the lower circulatingopenings 14 are theflanges 18 which extend downwardly and which are designed to rest uponasuitable fiat base such, for instance, as a concrete floor. v L I Whentwo .of these half sections are intended to be used to form a furnacefront they are connected with each other by means of the plates 19 shownin Fig. 7, which plates are secured to the perforated lugs in therectangular openings. The upper plate 19 is provided with a clean-outdoor 20, the

central one with a fire door 21 and the lower,

plate with a draft door 22, andan ash door 24. In addition to thisthe'circulating open ings 14 at the front are preferably covered bymeans of plates 25 held in lace by the bolts 26 engagingfthe arches 2 onthe in terior and being-provided with the nuts 28 on the exterior.

of bolts 30.

V In the event that'these half sections are intended to be used at therear of the furnace, a plate 31 is provided in the upper rectangularopening, which plate is provided with a central circular opening 32 fora flue pipe. The central rectangular opening is covered by a solid plate33 and the lower rectangular opening by asolid plate 34, all of whichare bolted to the perforated lugs. Obviously any one of these halfsections for the front and rear of the furnace may be removed andanother; similar one substituted therefor readily and easily and withoutin any way affecting or changing the intermediate furnace sections, aswill hereinafter appear.

In the construction of a furnaceof thiskind, I preferably make the frontand rear half sections relatively strong and heavy, andI have providedmeans whereby prac- In addition to this upright lugs 29 may be'provided, as shown in Fig. 7, and these lugs may be connected by meanstically allof the strains that are appliedto a furnace of this kind areapplied to said:

front and rear sections; hence the intermediate sections, hereinafterdescribed, may be made relatively light and inexpensive.

In Figs. 6 and 9, I have illustrated one of the intermediate furnacehalf sections. Each of these is composed of a hollow uprightbody portion35 having circulating openings '36 at its upper and lower portions andhaving its inner side tapered inwardly at 37. On top is a lug 38corresponding to the lug 15 and at the inner portion of the top is a lug39 corresponding to the lug 29.

The top of each of these intermediate'half sections is indicated by thenumeral 40 and its under surface is tapered downwardly at 41. Spacedapart from the top 40 is a-horizontally arranged water chamber 42, the.

inner end of its top portion at 43 being fiat and being of substantiallythe same width as the body portion 35. Said top isv pro-' vided near itsouter portion with draft openings or notches 44 so that when two ofthese members 43are placed together a horizontal partition willbe formedWit draft openings at the notches 44. r

To aid in the circulation ofwater from.

the water chamber 42 to the top portion 40, I preferably. provide ahollow water chamber 45 communicating'between these two parts. Below thebody, portion '35 is the flat downwardly extendin flange .46 designed torest upon a suita le furnacebase or floor and also designed to form theinner and notto. the light intermediate sections.

I insert in the upper circulating openings of the rear section tapered vpipes 48, which pipes are connected at their outer ends with theT-fittings 49 and these T-fittings 49 are connectedby a pipe 50. Atthebottom isa similar arrangement. of pipes and T-fittings. Bythisarrangement'it is'obvious that the heated water that rises to thetop of each boiler .half section flows into the pipe 50 and the vcooledwater returns through the corresponding pipe 51 at the bottom. .By thisarrangement itis never necessary to apply any pipes for watercirculationto any except the rear boiler section and when it is desired to use thefurnace as a hot water furnace it is only necessary to provide somemeans for carrying off the water from the pipe 50 and returning it afterit has been used to the pipe 51.

If it is desired to utilize a furnace of this kind as a steam boilerfurnace I simply remove the pipe connection between the pipes 50 and 51and substitute therefor a steam chamber 52 which is extended from apoint slightly below the pipe 51 to a point spaced a considerabledistance above the top of the furnace sections. This steam chamber isdetachably connected with the pipes 50 and 51, by means of the fittings50 and 50 At the top of the steam generating chamber is a steamdischarge pipe 53 and the steam chamber may be provided with a watergage 54 and a steam gage 55.

In practical use, it is obvious that a great economy is effected byreason of my invention both on account of the fact that only twopatterns are needed for the construction of an entire furnace and alsoon account of the fact that the half sections may be handled much morereadily and easily than though entire sections were used extendingacross the furnace from side to side.

There is also a further advantage in form ing a furnace of half sectionsbecause each half of the furnace is then made an independent waterheating device and the obj ection of cross currents flowing from oneside of the furnace to another and thus shortcircuiting a part of thefurnace is avoided and each individual furnace half section is soarranged that a complete circulation of Water may be had therein.

Another very decided advantage in connection with my improved furnaceconstruction is that half sections when placed in position form acomplete furnace and do not need any furnace wall or base on which torest and hence when it is desired to change to convert a hot water plantof my construetion into a steam plant the steam attachment is applied inthe manner shown in Fig. 1, the

V furnace is then filled with water level with the top thereof so thatthe water when heated in each furnace section will rise to the top, flowthrough the circulating openings into the steam chamber and as soon asthe heated water reaches the steam space in the steam chamber steam willbe instantly generated and will flow out through the steam supply pipe53 at the top. The water when cool will return from the lower end of thesteam chamber into the radiator sections. Hence by means of this simpleand inexpensive attachment a practical and eflicient steam heatingsystem may be made from a ,hot water heater.

I claim as my invention:

In a sectional boiler an end section having water circulating openingsand composed of identical interchangeable halves, each half being hollowand having a vertical side portion, a horizontal top portion. and twointermediate horizontal portions, the walls of the portions beingarranged to form an ash pit opening, a combustion chamber opening and asmoke chamber opening, the walls of said last three openings having ameans formed thereon and located in the central plane thereof forsupporting closure devices.

Des Moines, Iowa, Dec. 14, 1912.

CHARLES PHELPS.

Witnesses:

PAUL PHELPS, ANNA PHELPS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Oommisslonerof Patents.

Washington, D. O.

